Cruzeiro midfielder Nilton believes retaining the Brasileirão will be difficult

Cruzeiro midfielder Nilton has admitted it will be tough to retain the Brasileirão.

Marcelo Oliveira’s side won the title by 14 points last season, but Nilton is expecting to face sterner opposition this time around.

“We try to score at all time, winning is the most important thing,” he said, as reported by sempreinter.com. “We want victories and as many points as we can get.

“The league is difficult this year with many good teams like Internacional, Grêmio and Corinthians who were favourites at the start of this season and will fight the battle until the end.

“We won last year and now we just try our best to play our regular form of playing both home and away. That is the key to success.”

Cruzeiro started their title defence with a 2-1 victory at Bahia. Nilton opened the scoring on 62 minutes, before Talisca equalised from the spot. With the game heading towards a draw, substitute Marcelo Martins Moreno marked his a Raposa debut by scoring a last minute winner.